Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-09
DAILY HERALD.
BUGS.
The Fruit Growers Discuss Their
ExNermfmatiOm.

in the Board OF Trade rooms yester-
dag morning. The object of the meet
ing was to discuss and devise som G
method for the destruction of the
scale bug, and more particularly to
hear reports in regard to the ga {
treatment. The method is as fol-
lows: An impervious tent is placed
over the Tree to be treated, and is
fastened to the ground in manner te
make the tent as air tight as possible
The gas is then made by mixing sui
phuric acid, cynanide of potassium
and bi-carbonate of soda. Great car,
is necessary to be used in the mix
ing. The mode is about as follows
The desired amount of acid is placet
in a receiver and the amount Of sod.
required put into a vessel: then ado
water to bring it to thin paste, stir
ring we'll to get rid of all the Jumps
before the cynanide solution is added
Mix the cynanide and the soda paste
SO othatthe undissolved soda will re-
main evenly distributed throughout
tfiesmixture. Pour into the cynanide
receiver and allow it to run slowly and
regularly upon the acid, which has
previously been run into the genera
tor. The gas is then forced into the
tent through g. ll-inch iron pipe, in
company with strong current of air
forced through by means Of blower.
1t has been found advisable to put a
sort of seive over the exit of the pipe,
both because it tended to distribute
the gas and kept the gas from burning
the foliage, as it did
without the seive. There were
present DIV. G. Dominick, of Orange ;
J. H. Kellon, Tustin; A. Scott Chap
man, San Gabriel; w. G. Klee, Berke-
ley; w. Chippendale, Duarte; John
Scott, Duarte Ernest Watson, Duarte !;
A. F. Kercheval, Los Angeles
D. w. Coquillett, Los Angeles, W. F.
Mcmillan, Los Angeles, F. Edward
Gray, Alhambra; A. A. Drury, Los
Angeles; and M. w. Getchell, Yer
non.
The meeting was called to order by
Mr.. w. g.. Klee. The first business
transacted was the appointment of
Mr.. Getchell as President and Mr..
Gray Secretary. Mr.. Chapman ad-
dressed the meeting on the subject of
the gas treatment. He said that he
had estimated the cost of the treat
ment to be about IS cents per tree !;
also that he had found the bugs not
only on the trees, but ON nettles and
weeds, and that he was treating his
orchard with gas and was very much
encouraged at the results.
Mr. Kiee stated that in calling this
meeting he desired to 80 place this
matter before the people that they
would realize the magnitude of the
subject and that some genius might
arise and succeed in exterminating
these pests. He said the gas sis very
dangerous an do not believe in
placing it in the hands of everybody.
l would suggest that company be
formed to take hold of this thing so
that we could depend upon getting
skiiled workmen to use this gas"
Mr.. j. II. Kellon addressed the
meeting and said that though sad to
relate, it is true, that the productivity
of this State has deteriorated instead
of having advanced during the last
year he said: eve who are engaged
in orange growing have many Difficult.
ties to overcome. Owing to the rea
estate craze, beautiful groves and
vineyards are being cut up into towr
lots, bought by Tom, Dick and Harry
who care nothing for anything excep,
to get more money out OF the property
than they put into it; that the trees
are neglected and of course become
infested with the scale bug, and those
who are SO fortunate as to posses
groves in such a vicinity are COM
PEELED to suffer-" He advocated the
gas treatment.
Professor Coquillett said that Mr.
Chapman's estimate was much lower
than it cost him.
Mr.. Grow, of this city, read an in.
teresting address on the scale bug
He referred to the first appearance o.
the scale in 1874, and the treatment
the more conscientious and industrious
growers applied to destroy the pest
Whale oil soap was largely used. Fol
q time it was thought the scale haC
been destroyed, but it soon reappeared
Knowing the effects of high tempera
tare upon the young of the back scale
Mr.. Wolfskill suggested, experiment.
ing with tent. He had one made
also the sheet-iron stove that woulC
send the heated air into the tent. W.
raised the temperature to 1923 degrees
for over an hour. 1t killed the blacl
scales, but the white scales seemed to
enjoy the heat. The tree was injured
and the enterprise was abandoned.
We next tried steam for a small steam
boiler. This cooked the top of the
tree, while on the lower half the bugs
we're as lively as ever. Our next ex
pertinent was with tobacco smoke
The test lasted six hours, and the
scale came out OF the smoke smiling
Sulphur was tried. This bleached the
foliage and fruit, but did the bug nc
harm. A heavier charge killed both
tree and bug. Among other expert
ments under a tent was concussior
from gunpowder, muriatic acid gas,
carbonic acid gas, chloroform, com.
mercial, and also that manufactured
inside the tent from chloride of lime
and alcohol, hydrogen, arsenic and
other fumes and gasses. Unlike other
experimenters with carbon bi-sulphide
Mr.. Wolfskill has had very encourag-
ing results. 1t was among our earliest
experiments. The finest tests were
ten, twenty and thirty minutes and
one hour, with no satisfactory results
But when exposed to the gas for three
hours it killed every scale, also the
eggs in the cottony scale, and the
trees were not injured. Our efforts
were then directed towards diffusine
the gas quickly, but we soon learned
that it required time to destroy the
bug and germ.
Professor d. w. Coquillett expert.
mented in the Wolfskill orchard, and
discovered that hydrocyanic acid gas
would kill the insects, but it injured
tho foliage